FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies invest in Denmark
FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies invest in Denmark

Case

Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies Danish fairy tale

Case

Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies Danish fairy tale

The life science sector in Denmark once again proves to be capable of attracting significant foreign investments. Only one year after FUJIFILM Corporation acquired Biogen’s facility in Denmark, they have made further investments of 928.000.000 USD looking to provide end-to-end solutions and doubling their drug substance manufacturing capacity at the Hillerød site. 

When

It is only a year ago, in 2019, that FUJIFIM Corporation acquired a production facility in Hillerød, Denmark, from American company Biogen. The facility now houses FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies (FDB) in Denmark – a contract development and manufacturing organization for biologics and advanced therapies.
 
During the past year the Danish site’s results have only trended one way: up. 
"Within one year, or less than one year, we have decided to double up the capacity. In that one year we have showed a great track-record and earned huge credibility from the owners in Japan, the stakeholders and our customers. It’s been like a fairy tale." 

Keita Hirabayashi 

Senior Director, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies

The site has maintained a strong manufacturing track-record, enabling a stable supply of high-quality biopharmaceuticals. The high and consistent quality has led to new orders, not only from existing clients, but also from a wealth of new clients contributing to rapid expansion.
 
To keep up with the demand and long order book, FUJIFILM Corporation has now more than doubled their investment, putting 928 million USD further into the Danish site. The goal? Doubling the site’s current drug substance manufacturing capability and further increasing support to FDB's partners from pre-clinical through commercialisation.
 

A perfect marriage

Denmark offers many advantages to a company such as FDB. The massive talent pool of people with advanced capabilities, the high concentration of life science companies to partner with and the ability to expand and scale highly automated productions easily have all helped boost FBD’s success. 
"Denmark is very attractive because of the culture, the knowledge, and the fact that in Europe, Denmark has the highest concentration of life science companies. We have easy access to the right mindset."

Lars Petersen

COO & Senior Vice President, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies

And getting the right people with the right mindset onboard is essential. One of the cornerstones of the Danish FDB site is a constant focus on people and purpose.  Because this focus enables them to maintain a constant supply of high-quality products and a flexibility to meet the changing needs of their many customers.  

"The focus in Denmark is, that when you have a facility and you have a team focused on purpose, you can drive a totally unique result that our customers and clients, the big pharmaceutical companies and life science companies, are very, very attracted by."

Lars Petersen

COO & Senior Vice President, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies

Helping fight the COVID-19 pandemic

Among many other things, the agile approach to production, advanced capabilities of the site as well as FDB’s purpose-driven culture has led to a manufacturing reservation from a collaboration between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome and Mastercard. The order requires FDB to reserve some of their manufacturing capacities for a future COVID-19 therapy for the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator, showing trust in the site’s capabilities to deliver on the biggest of stages and impacting the whole world. 
It is very important to us that we are working with the Gates Foundation, because then we are also talking about the parts of the world that maybe can’t afford medicine. That really matters, and it helps attract talented people that want to help improve the world.

Lars Petersen

COO & Senior Vice President, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies

Yet even with COVID being on everyone’s mind, FDB is still focusing on the big picture. Because while fighting COVID-19 is of the utmost importance, there are still plenty of other diseases out there that require treatment. 

"We are in the middle of a pandemic, so we have a lot of requests for COVID-19 treatments. But we also have to be very focused on the fact that this pandemic could block medicine companies getting their medicine to patients of all kinds of other diseases. So the one goal we have is really making sure that we are agile, flexible and can react fast enough to help as many patients as possible."

Lars Petersen

COO & Senior Vice President, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies

So far, FDB has fulfilled that promise. And the new massive expansion, patients all over the world can rest assured that they will continue receiving treatments of the highest quality. 

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